Krush mares

I am offering the two Kuhaylat al-Krush full sisters Bint al-Barra, 22, and Cinnabar Myst, 21, by ASF David out of Mystalla for a good retirement home, or to someone who may wish to continue the preservation work I started with them. I am doing so because I need to make room for new arrivals (details soon), and I already have a replacement filly Mayassah (by Clarion CF). If anyone is interested, drop me a line. Notable features about both mares include: — an extraordinary disposition, both mares are sweet as lambs; they had never been ridden, yet they took on both my kids on their backs. — very old lines up close: Abu Zeyd, 1904 (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond) is 4 generations away; Hanad is 5 generations away; Daaldan is a paternal grandsire. — old endurance lines up close with Albert Harris bred horses 3 generations removed (Komet by Sunshine x Tebuk). — easy keepers  

Bagdad, 1935 stallion in France

Not sure to think of this one: Bagdad, 1935 stallion (Norniz x Bagdalyne by Danbik); he precedes the generalized (and still much uncovered) cross-breeding of Arabians with Anglo-Arabians that plagued France from the 1950s onwards, yet he does not look like your classical Arabian. He does not look like an Anglo-Arabian either; he looks like an Arabian of the racing type. But compare with the picture just below, which is that of an Anglo-Arab with 25% of Arab blood.  

Mahboob Halab, 2007 Shuwayman Sabbah stallion from Syria, in France

He is turning every bit like his dam, a fortress of a mare, which died this summer after inhaling a suspicious chemical gas near Aleppo, but he is more refined than her. I love his high withers. Click on the photo (by Fabienne and Severine Vesco) to enlarge it.    

Desert-bred Foundation Horses in Okba’s pedigree

This post builds on the previous one below, about the Tunisian racing stallion Okba (1983-2006). Here is an initial list (in no order) of the desert-bred foundation horses in his pedigree, which I will keep updating as I move on: 1. Dynamite II, ca. 1920 (Hamdani x Tayyara), to Sidi Thabet 2. Tamerlan, a Dahman, to Sidi Thabet, imp. 1910 3. Goutta, to Tiaret, born 1884, imp 1889 4. Cheboub, a Hadban Enzahi born in 1872, to Tiaret 5. Zerga, to Tiaret, born in 1873 sire “Seglawi Regibi”, dam “Chouémé” (Shuwaymah) 6. Ibech, bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins, to Sidi Thabet, born 1891, i,p. 1896 7. Assacoulai, sire of Ould Assacoulai who was born in 1878 at Sidi Thabet 8. Anazaouia, dam of Ould Assacoulai 9. Harami, to Pompadour, imp. 1872-76 10. Dolma Batche, a Jilfa, to Pompadour “from Constantinople”, born in 1869, imp. 1876, chestnut. 11. Khamil, born 1894 imp. to Tiaret in 1898 (with Aziz and Salamie) 12. Ramses II, “from Syria”, sire “Kehelan El-Boulad”; dam “Hamdanie”, to Pompadour in the 1880s 13. Samaria, a Kuhaylah Ajuz, from Khalid Bey al-Assaad, in Taybeh, Lebanon, bought for 8,000 francs, to Pompadour in 1887 by M. de Gaanay, to Sidi…

Turefi Dahman, 1984 stallion from the UAE

Anyone knows what the origin of this picture on allbreedpedigree.com is? It is supposed to represent the 1984 chestnut UAE stallion Turefi Dahman (Dahman Al Asfar 1975 x Turefiya Safra OA 1974), yet the horse in grey.  The sire on the pedigree is UAE bred from Saudi lines, and the dam (persumably from the strain of Kuhaylan Turayfi) is presented as a desert bred. [Update: Photo by Rick Van Lent, Jr]

Okba, 1983 Tunisian racehorse in the USA

I am even more disconnected from the racing scene in the USA than I thought. I recently found out that the 1983 Tunisian Jilfan Dhawi racehorse Okba (Koufi x Ahram by Esmet Ali) had been imported to the USA where his offspring (out of mares from non-asil race Russian, Polish, US/Kontiki and other racing lines) have been topping the charts of race winners over the past decade. He was first raced in Tunisia (10-9-1), then in Oman (4-1-0) where he was spotted  and imported to the USA by Stephen Hollis. Okba was bred by the Tunisian Government Stud of Sidi Thabet from Algerian and Tunisian bloodlines only (save for two crosses to Ibn Fayda I, a gift from Prince Kemal El Dine Hussein to Tunisia). His pedigree is that of an Asil and is significant in that he does not trace to old (asil) French mainland lines (e.g., Duc) which were common in Tunisia at the time.  He also traces up close to two of the foundation mares (Ambria and Palmyre) of the famed stud of Admiral Cordonnier in Tunisia. I will be proposing him for inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster next year, after I do my due diligence on his trajectory…

Surviving Medieval Arab Philological Works on Horses

This morning I stumbled upon an erudite and thoroughly researched paper by Dr. Shihab al-Sarraf of the International Center of Furusiyyah [Horsemanship] Studies on “Mamluk Furusiyyah Literature and Its Antecedents”, published at the University of Chicago’s Mamluk Studies Review, VIII-1-2004. It is the most comprehensive review to date of the Islamic literature on horses and horsemanship from early to late medieval times. The following passage in this paper sparked my interest: “The main body of Arab philological works on horses was written in Iraq during the period from the latter half of the second/eighth century to the end of the first half of the fourth/tenth century. These works included both comprehensive and specific treatises. Of the former type, commonly titled Kitab al-Khayl, more than twenty treatises were written, all deemed lost except four. These are Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Ubaydah Ma‘mar ibn al-Muthanná (d. 209/824); Kitab al-Khayl by al-Asma‘i (d. 216/831); Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-‘Utbi (d. 228/842), and Kitab al-Khayl by Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280/893). The last two treatises are still in manuscript and the fate of their extant copies, presumably kept in a private collection, is uncertain. In any case, the basic and unmatched contributions in this domain remain the above first…

Dachna, 1983 Shuwaymah Sabbah mare in Germany

Stephan Eberhardt shared with me this photo of his Algerian/Tunisian/Egyptian mare Dachna (Khaiber x Dahna by El Aswad a.k.a Ibn Galal-15), a Shuwaymah Sabbah tracing to the Tiaret mare Cherifa. I am always pleased to see that these asil lines  from North Africa have crossed well with Egyptian lines in Europe. The mare has two close crosses to Tunisian lines: her paternal grand-dam is the Jilfat al-Dhawi mare Rissala (Esmet Ali x Chanaan by Souci), whose sire and dam are from Anatole Cordonnier’s breeding in Tunisia but mostly from Algerian lines; and her maternal grand-dam is the beautiful Dar Essalam (Koufi x Djamila by Titan) whose sire is from Tunisian lines from Sidi Thabet and dam from Algerian lines from Tiaret.

Hassan a Stallion at the Syrian Arabian Horse Government Stud in 1958

Last year, I posted a photo of the grey Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Sultan, one of the Syrian government stallions at the stallion depot of the Veterinary Unit of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture in 1958 (Syria’s then equivalent of the EAO). Now I am posting this photo of Sultan’s mate, the Hamdani Simri stallion Hassaan. Photo from Hazaim Alwair. Judging from these pictures and others, the Syrian government appears to have maintained of asil stallions at this time. I was told that when in the late 1950s Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser offered it the stallion Amro (Nazeer x Amara by Kheir x Zahra by Hamran II), many Syrian breeders shunned him because they felt the government stallions were better.  

Hujjah of the Kuhaylat Krush al-Bayda Mumtazah, bred by the Shammar in Syria around 1970

This is my translation of the hujjah of Mumtazah, the maternal and paternal grand-dam of the Kuhaylan Krush stallion Mokhtar, who is now in France with Chantal Chekroun and is already 27 years old. I am happy to see the number of his descendants increase every year. “I the undersigned ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, known as al-Qartah from the Faddaghah tribe of the Shammar al-Zawr, who now lives in the village of al-Taif, which is in the district of Tall Hamis in the province of al-Qamishli, I testify by God Most High, a testimony free from all self-interest, that the grey flea-bitten mare that is eighteen years old is Krush al-Bayda; she [i.e., her line] came to us directly from the Shaykh of the Shaykhs of the Shammar, Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin, approximately twenty years ago; her sire is Krush from the same marbat; and so are the sire of her dam, and the sire of her sire; her paternal uncles are from her maternal uncles [i.e., her sire and dam are closely related and so are their sires and dams] and no outside horse was introduced among them  [i.e., the line was only bred to stallions from the same line]. And…

Recent photo of Hussam Al Shamal, bay Kuhaylan Nawwaq from Syria, in France

Adrien Deblaise just shared with me this photo of the Syrian stallion imported to France, Hussam al-Shamal (Raad x Rouba al-Shamal by Al-Abjar). He is reminicent of his sire the desert-bred (literally born under a tent) Kuhaylan al-Mossen Raad in color, size of the eye, croup, and of his maternal grandsire, the impressive Saqlawi ibn Zubayni al-Abjar (neck, ears, shoulder).

Goodbye Sahra

Last week, my beloved 28 year old Ma’naqi Sbayli mare, Dakhala Sahra, was put down. She had a stroke, which had left her moving in circles from point A to point B, instead of straight lines. I saw footage of this, which I will not share here out of deference for her. I had never seen anything like this before. The story of this mare is one of missed opportunities, since I first tried breeding her in 2010. With her breeder Jeanne Craver, and former owner Kathy Busch, we tried everything: ET, AI, live cover after treating her uterus cysts. Nothing worked. I feel guilty because the Ohio vet I chose for her ET was incompetent and inexperienced. I felt I had a window there. She is one of very few asil mares left with a tail female to Haidee of Captain Roger Upton (I have serious issues with those that trace to *Bint Shams in the middle of the pedigree, by the way), and has the most beautiful pedigree of all the mare I have owned. Imagine this: a daughter of Plantagenet, who is a grand-daughter of Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah), a great-grand-daughter of Julyan (Julep x Bint Maaroufa),…

List of Potentially Surviving Tiaret Lines

Perhaps I should not be doing that, but I am posting a list of potentially surviving Tiaret lines in a Word document. There are less than a handful potentially left, as John was writing earlier. If someone finds a way to get hold of one, let me know. I will jump on the next flight to Algiers. Let me know if you can open it. Legend: in bold: stallions, underlined: potentially alive.    

A query on the stallion El Sbaa

I have previously written twice and in some detail about the desert-bred stallion El Sbaa imported to France in the 1920s (here and here). It turns out that the strain of the horse is Kuhaylan J’aitni (that’s from his file at Pompadour) and that he was purchased by French Inspector Rieu de Madron from Ahmad Ibish’s stables in Alexandria (that’s from de Madron’s book). The wiki website Allbreedpedigree.com has his dam as “El Ghermith A Kuhaylah Juatany” and his sire as a “Maneghi Sbyeli”. Does anyone know where this specific information comes from? do we know his breeder? Also Teymur made the interesting suggestion that he might be the El Sabaa sire of Hamdan Stables’ El Gadaa, who appears in Hamdan’s studbook.  

On *Turfa as a ride for Queen Elizabeth, from the JAHS

From the British Journal of the Arab Horse Society, 1935-1938, p. 168, under “Royal Gifts of Arabian Horses”: In December 1937, 4 Arabian horses and 4 camels were unloaded from the liner Mantola at the Royal Albert Docks, London. They were presented by His Majesty King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia to His Majesty the King, as a token of friendship and in appreciation to the hospitality given to his son and heir at the Coronation. The contingent consisted of two stallions and two mares. Brief particulars of these horses are given below: 1. Manak (1928) […] 2. Kasim (1934)  […] 3. Tarfa (1935), a grey mare, of great quality and a nice mover. Her sire is an Obeyan Abdul Hamra and her dam is a Kehaileh Ajuz. Tarfa is being specially trained as a hack for Princess Elizabeth, and she is promising to make a very nice ride for the little princess.  4. Faras (1927) […] The “little princess” is Queen Elizabeth II..

Book: “Tiaret, le Reve Algerien” (excerpts)

French breeder and researcher Philippe Deblaise has a new book coming out: “Tiaret: le Reve Algerien”, which chronicles the story of the prestigious government stud of Tiaret in then French-colonized Algeria. The website of the French Union Pour la Sauvegarde du Cheval Arabe Oriental (USCAR) publishes excerpts of it (here). Here is a wonderful photo album of what Tiaret looked like from the first part of the XXth century until today, including 129 photos of the Tiaret stud. Below are a couple photos.   Tiaret

Another photo of the Mukhallad 2001 stallion Djelid in France

As mentioned in an earlier post last year, a small number of horses still trace to the very old Mukhallad strain including  this 2001 chestnut stallion whose extraordinary pedigree is heavily line-bred to asil Algerian,Tunisian and old French lines of the highest caliber. Here is a  nice shot of him which I had not seen before. His owner is standing at stud in the south west of France. The photo shows a very correct stallion of good “old” Arab type, reminiscent of several old Algerian stallions from Tiaret (e.g., the photo of Scorpion by Baleck in the small Mauvy book), of some Davenport stallions (e.g., Deluvian CF, Regatta CF) and Syrian desert bred stallions (the sons of Mahrous in particular), with a short back, a high and well defined dry wither, a large eye, deep jaws, short prickled ears, a small level and round croup and a thick tail set high.  This is my kind of stallion. Below is a run-down of the male ancestors of Djelid in the maternal line (sire, sire of dam, sire of grand-dam, etc) so you could appreciate where he is coming from. Djelid is a son of the wonderful 1975 asil Jilfan Dhawi stallion Jahir…

Question on *Werdi

Does anyone know how the mare *Werdi made her way to Davenport in 1906? There is no mention of her in his “Quest”, and her original documentation (hujjah) points towards the central Syrian city of Hama as a place of origin. Hama is not a place Davenport or his friends visited, he only visited Aleppo and its semi-desert surroundings, while his friends visited Damascus and its immediate surroundings, where they bought *Muson, *Antar and a third horse I forget.

More pictures of Mayyassah and a request for feedback

Mayyassah Al Arab is by Clarion CF out of Cinnabar Myst and is the youngest foal of the Al-Dahdah preservation program of old American asil lines. She has lines to Hanad from his son Mainad and his daughter Dhanad. All the photos are by Kim Davis. I am genuinely interested in your candid and critical feedback on her conformation and overall balance, even at this early stage. It will help me decide whether to breed her dam and/or her sister another time. The dam’s neck is a bit short and I worry that her daughter inherited that. I also think the hindquarter, while very strong, is a bit droopy. On the other hand, I really like the broad forehead, the long ears, and the good shoulder, as well as the showy attitude, the head and tail carriage and the vigor and athleticism of this filly.  

Gorgeous Suri Al Sahra, 2013 Hadba Enzahi filly

How I love this young Davenport filly of the Hadban Enzahi strain, born a couple months ago at Jeannie Lieb’s from her rescue mare RL Bilquis (DDA Rasan x RL Boomerette by DDA Ihsan) and sired by RL Thunder Cloud (DDA Tyred CF x DDA Hadba by Letarnad), with so many crosses to the original import mare Hadba. Here she is with her dam RL Bilquis, aka “Penny” who is a small mare, but still looks gorgeous in Jeannie’s good care..

On Lady Anne’s visit to Saud al-Tahawi in 1887

In Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals and Correspondence, the nice journal entry on February 20th, 1887 on the visit to Saud al-Tahawi, the reference to: “Fourthly, a Kehileh Taytanyeh [?] fleabitten” is of course to a Kehileh Jaytanieh. The strain of K. Taytanyeh does not exist, while K. Jaytanyeh (or J’aitniyah) is well known. The J at the beginning of a sentence in a handwritten letter can easily be taken for a T, and the editors were not sure of the transcription hence the question mark after it. This is indeed the strain of several mares at Sh. Sulayman Abd al-Hamid Eliwa al-Tahawi, including Bombolla and her daughters, a strain he got from his father Abd al-Hamid, who in turn must have received it from other Tahawi. Also, the reference to “a Kehilet el Tamoryeh (bred here), chestnut, very like Damask Rose and said to be of Roala origin, dam of all the young stock except one”  is to a mare of the Kuhaylan Tamri strain that was obtained by Saud al-Tahawi from Nasir al-Mi’jil (aka Ibn Maajil), and whose line is very meticulously recorded in the herd book of his son Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi, which was transcribed and uploaded online…

The Kuhaylat al-Mimrah Freiha al-Hamra and her connection to the Tahawi Arabs

One of the pleasures of being in Lebanon for a few days is having access to my father’s Arabian horse library. I have been feeling deprived of all these books over the years, as I never dared taking them with me to the States when I moved there in 2000. As always, after glancing at the shelves, I ended up with a copy of Lady Anne’s Journals and Correspondence, which I take to be, along with the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, the single most important contribution to knowledge on Arabian horses in the past fifty years. Every time I read through it, I keep stumbling across information I had not noticed before . I had never noticed the following for example, under the Journal entry of April 11, 1891: “We galloped to Ahmed Pasha’s bersim. Then we walked round and looked at the horses.”  A list of the five mares “we liked best” follows, including two sisters of the K. Nawwaq strain (“Saba” and “Atwa”), “Roja” [Roga el Beda, tail female to Moniet El Nefous] and “Sobha” [Sabha el Zarka, dam of Jamil El Ahmar, registered tail male to Anter and Ibn Rabdan]. Then this entry: “5) Lastly the Kehileh en Nimr…

Introducing Mayyassah Al Arab

Yesterday Kim Davis and her daughter Taylor sent me this lovely shot of little Mayyassah (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David), who was born last week.  I love the broad forehead, the low eye placement, and the delicate muzzle. All three are recognized Davenport features which the infusion of more Davenport blood brings into a line. I also love the long ears!    

The Mohammed Ali dynasty and the Tahawis

Also from Lady Anne’s Journals, February 24th, 1891: “A very bad day, wet, windy, cold and dull, not suitable for Judith to go to Cairo, so that I and Wilfrid went without her. When we got into the 1st class carriage we found in it Prince Osman Pasha who entertained us with agreeable conversation the whole way to Cairo. Prince Osman also explained the original connection of the Tihawi family (the Hamadi Sheykhs) with the Mohammed Ali family. It began from the arrival of Mohammed Ali in Egypt and the Tihawi were from the first the special body guards of the Pasha, which continued with his sons and descendants.”

Lady Anne Blunt and the Tahawis

From Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals and Correspondence under the January 13, 1903 entry: “Course to Om Kamr (for the third time). We started at 7.30 am making for the Hamad. Cantering on we  came in sight of a tent, which at first H.F. [Wilfrid Blunt a.k.a. Head of the Family] thought might be Abu’s tomb _ a Kubba _ but it proved to be a white tent. On approaching we saw two figures come out. We asked them who was the owner of the tent and they replied Sheykh el Arab Mazin (el Tihawi) and that he was gone out hunting. We had not gone out much further when we saw 5 horsemen between us and the rief, and we loitered watching them as they got nearer and saw that they carried hawks and one carried a gun and the fifth was followed by a pack of about half a dozen hounds. On first speaking, by H.F. to the two nearest us, hey seemed very suspicious of us but afterwards their chief was most amiable, he proved to be Mohammed Ibn Majello, owner of large lands near Karaim and a connection of saoud el Tihawi between who and Majello there is a…

It’s a girl!

I am in Beirut, Lebanon, visiting family for a week. I opened my email with 24 hours delay and found this wonderful piece of news from Kim Davis, who told me that the Kuhaylat al-Krush Cynnabar Myst (ASF David x Mystalla) foaled a filly yesterday at 4.15 pm. Sire is the grand Clarion CF. Pics coming later. I am indebted to Kim for having taking this mare when heavy in foal and foaled her in the best of conditions. Thank you, Kim, you are the best.  

Dr. Ashoub 1942 RAS book

Did you know that what is currently considered as Volume I of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization studbook, the one published in English in 1948 (I think) was only the English translation of a previous volume published in Arabic in 1942 by Dr. Abdel Halim Ashoub? Well, I didn’t,  until Yasser Ghanem al-Tahawi pointed me to it recently. Yasser was looking for explicit evidence of use by the RAS of Tahawi stallions in the early years, so he bought a recent reprint of this 1942 book from the EAO library. I look forward to acquiring one, too.  

New Photo of *Exochorda

A “new” photo of *Exochorda, the best of her so far, has recently surfaced on Facebook. Here it is below, with filly Suleika at her side. It shows a well built mare of good Arabian type, reminiscent of some of the asil bloodlines from the Syrian desert such as the early Davenport Arabians, and the Hamidie horses. The croup was obviously passed on to her son Sirecho. Click on the photo to enlarge it. From the recent research, there is no doubt anymore about *Exochorda having been bred in Egypt, of two desert bred parents. Aiglon, owned by Ahmed Effendi Ibish, a Syrian race horse owner in Cairo and a native of Damascus, appears to have been bred in the Syria desert. All of Ibish’s horses came from there.

Jane Ott Obituary by Edie Booth

This is the text of Jane Ott’s obituary by Edie Booth on the Blue Arabian Horse Catalogue Facebook page: “On Wednesday, April 24th, 2013, at 1:50 AM, Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott slipped peacefully away.  Miss Ott is a major historic figure and prime mover in recognizing the loss of the original desertbred horses among American breeders.  Her primary research work is The Blue Arabian Horse Catalog.  The Catalog listed all the horses Miss Ott could find, frequently with the help of Carl Raswan, that were authenticated as the original horses of the Bedouin tribes of Arabia.  These horses were jotted down in a notebook with a blue cover, and the additional grouping of a star/asterisk was added for the horses that were without the Managhi strain of horses anywhere in their pedigree.  This separation was due to unknown background on some of the Managhi horses, and as Miss Ott might say, the separation may not matter at all, but if it does matter and all the horses have been mixed, there is no way back. My introduction to Miss Ott was in 1986 after reading an interesting full page ad in EQUUS magazine.  Located about 180 miles and under 3…

She-camel beauty queen

This she-camel recently won first prize in a regional Gulf beauty contest in the category of white camesl “al-wuduh”. I am increasingly interested in the production of camel beauty criteria in modern Arabia, because unlike Arabian horses, the lack of significant camel breeding in the West could mean that the codification of such criteria for camels may have taken place without Western influence.